Talk:Zoids (1983)
Section heading Why is the American release and the Japanese release on the same page now? I understand that the terms "OJR" and "OAR" are no longer acceptable, but the American release is distinct enough to be it's own article. The way it is now, the American kits are indistinguishable from the Japanese ones, and the American release only had some of the white heads, the power zoids, Radio Shack Mammoth, and Giant Zrk. The other kits were Japan only. Leon35 (talk) 18:53, April 6, 2013 (UTC) :Keep in mind, the OAR page is OAR. Likewise the OJR is OJR. This page is based on official terms, rather than fan terms. In the official books, the Zoids line started in 1983. TOMY don't seem to differentiate between the OAR and the OJR. That being said, I will update this page to point out which Zoids came out in the USA as opposed to Japan. I'm only about a quarter way though this article though, it's currently incomplete. Sylvanelite (talk) 01:25, April 7, 2013 (UTC) Once this is done though, will it replace OJR and OAR? Or will those 2 articles be given new names? Leon35 (talk) 02:28, April 7, 2013 (UTC) :I've got no intention to change those articles. They will stay as-is. Sylvanelite (talk) 03:36, April 7, 2013 (UTC) What about their names? We can't use/shouldn't use fan terms anymore. I assume when this article is done, the list will more properly organize the American and Japanese releases, and link to the OJR and OAR pages. In my personal opinion, since the OAR Zoids have different names (or no names) just like the OER, which is also under the label "Zoids", I am not sure I understand the point of this article. Leon35 (talk) 06:14, April 7, 2013 (UTC) :This was discussed at length in the overhaul topic and the other related pages. The OAR, OJR, and other fan terms will be kept as category pages. They will not be manually linked-to, and instead will be automatically maintained using category tags. I don't want to repeat the long discussions that were done before, but the point of this page is that it's an official release, recognised by TOMY. There are numerous problems with trying to isolate the 6 OAR Zoids as being a distinct release, especially since it goes against official TOMY information. Trust me, it's cleaner to treat the OAR as part of this release, than it is to try and treat it as a totally independent release. Sylvanelite (talk) 12:07, April 7, 2013 (UTC) :Cleaner maybe, but wrong. The Americans started in 1981 and were sold in full in '82. ::It might be wrong, but it's officially wrong. TOMY didn't celebrate the 25th anniversary of Zoids in 2006, and didn't celebrate the 30th in 2011. The dates were 2008 and 2013 respectively. Why TOMY do this, is something I don't know. None the less, it's official, and can be cited as such, so that's why it's being used. Even so, I did include 1981 dates in the article. (as an aside - if the OAR started in 1981, both zoid.us and the english/japanese wikipedias are wrong.) Sylvanelite (talk) 07:51, April 10, 2013 (UTC) :: :Concerning the Japanese Zoids that's correct and perfectly suitable/cite-able for the line that was fully sold in Japan. :The Americans are still wrong though. It may be cleaner to lump them with the rest, but wrong. Lump or split or title change or no change, thatt doesn't really matter; the proper date for the proper series, even of the same name, does matter. (The printed date for those are 1981 though they were not sold in full until '82. Depending on series, some people like when the show/products were first created while others prefer when the series first were aired/sold-en-masse as the 'start date'. The latter seems to fit American Zoids better.) : Don't get me wrong - I'll quite happily create a 1982 or 1981 page if there's a citation for a physical release in that year (as opposed to copyright dates - which are already in this article). The reason I chose 1983 is because that's what TOMY have, so it's citable. If you look through the internet, there's a huge amount of conflicting information. (one given above, zoid.us vs wikipedia - even the 1982 release date on wikipedia was only added fairly recently, and the edit was not cited.) 1981, is printed on boxes, but as you note, that's not when the release happened. From what I could find, the Giant ZRK has 1983 printed on it, but there's also people claiming they built it in 1982. They might just be grouping it in with other 1982 Zoids, but it's none the less inconsistent enough that I can't use it as a citation for a 1982 release. This is a different issue to the OAR topic above. If the OAR happened in 1983, then this page is sufficient. If it didn't happen in 1983, then, yes, a new page is needed. The actual separation of regions is not important in that perspective. Sylvanelite (talk) 02:42, April 11, 2013 (UTC) The 1982 date on the wikipedia page was actually there a long time, because it is the correct launch date for the Americans. If you want to know the source, it's from an official interview in this book. The story of how Zoids were created is covered in there. It happens to be the source that acknowledges Tomy Corporation's (American) Zoids were successful where Tomy ltd.'s (Japan/domestic) Mechabionica line failed, incase you were wondering where that came from. Fun fact from the same book: the term Zoids (Zoic + ANDROIDS) was an American invention while Japan invented Mechabionica = Mecha + Bone due to the skeletal structure. Another cool fact, Bigasauru was considered the commander of the Japanese "launch" Zoids for the line in '83 hence the Bigasuaru for the Zoids 30th logo. Fun but irrelevant fact about logos; the easiest way to tell if you have the earliest type of American Zoids is to look at the Tomy logo. If the logo has a boy and a girl holding hands above the Tomy name (in small print) that would be the earliest type. That logo was retired by Tomy ltd. in 1979 but Tomy Corp. still used it. The "newer" logo is on the later Americans is simply the Tomy logo in large, rounded text. :So I'll create a 1982 page, and not a 1981 one. As for wikipedia, the 1982 date was only added in november last year. Until then it said 1983. The date for mechabonica has been 1982, but the OAR has been 1983 for several years prior. Sylvanelite (talk) 21:55, April 23, 2013 (UTC) Wrong title This line is actually ZOIDS メカ生体 which roughly translates to Zoids Mechanical Biological though I have heard it called Biological Machine Zoids. Here is an example http://toy-wave.com/eng/detail.php?id=809&table=07e it's right above Zoids as with others in the line. :Thank you. Corrections are always welcome. Currently the title is the start date of the line, so it's not wrong per-se. But you are right, if there's a more specific name, we should use it. "ZOIDS メカ生体" has not been mentioned anywhere on the wiki thusfar, which is why it wasn't included in this page up till now (this page may be new, but it's really just a re-hash of old information. Errors in the old info have been around for some time). Sylvanelite (talk) 08:20, June 14, 2013 (UTC) :I've not been able to find an official translation of "メカ生体". I will update the article, but I'm not going to rename it until I can find (or someone can provide) something official to use as a title. Sylvanelite (talk) 11:28, June 16, 2013 (UTC)